New to DVD - 'Batman: Gotham Knight'

With the year's most anticipated movie ticket less than two weeks away, we get an advance Batman fix in the form of the new DVD, Batman: Gotham Knight. The concept here is simple, the execution complex.

Likely drawing influence from both The Matrix and Star Wars, franchises that filled in the gaps between big screen releases with animated stories (The Animatrix, Clone Wars), Gotham Knight serves as a bridge between Batman Begins and the upcoming Dark Knight. Technically, we don't need this storyline to follow Batman to the next film; its' doubtful any of the events here will figure prominently in Dark Knight.

Rather, what this film manages to do is extend the mythos of Batman, like a shadow enveloping what's left of the brightness under a lonely streetlight, furthering his status as a divisive crime fighter in Gotham City.

There are police officers who hate his vigilante approach and others, like Lt. (not yet Commissioner) Gordon who believe Batman is saving Gotham. The city plays a key part in the film as well, as it slowly descends into becoming a "nest of vipers" as Billy Dee Williams (as Harvey Dent) called it in the first Burton film. So there are elements here that The Dark Knight could find useful, but no real plot points. The Joker does not make an appearance, nor does Dent.

What's most interesting about Gotham Knight is its presentation. Instead of being one linear story, this is an anthology, broken into six short chapters: Have I Got a Story for You, Crossfire, Field Test, In Darkness Dwells, Working Through Pain, and Deadshot. Each one adds a little something to the aura of the Caped Crusader.

Have I Got a Story for You points the perspective on kids in Gotham City and how they embellish what they think they've seen to create an even more super superhero and a bigger legend for him to live up to; Crossfire explores the notion that Batman's brand of heroism may not be everyone's cup of tea; Field Test takes a closer look at the development of Batgadgets; In Darkness Dwells picks up on the lost Batman Begins storyline of The Scarecrow, setting that up for something further down the road; Working Through Pain is exactly what you think it would be; and Deadshot introduces the villain of the same name, an assassin hired to take out Batman so Gotham City can return to chaos.

The anthology idea is bold enough, but Gotham Knight brings fresh ideas to the look of the story, as well. It would have been easy to replicate the TV show from the 1990s, Batman: The Animated Series, which many Batologists point to as the best incarnation of the story, but this film has a different anime director for each chapter. You would think six different artistic impressions of this character and Gotham City would be a lot to process, but amazingly enough, it flows quite well.

Curiously, the chapters get better as they go. Have I Got a Story for You doesn't really fit with the rest of the short films even though there is some interlocking between them all. The DVD doesn't need that one, however, and I would have rather seen Crossfire, In Darkness Dwells, and Deadshot take up a bit more time.

But this is far from a disaster and you could easily make the case that any franchise with as much history as Batman can only be improved by smaller productions like this that reach into areas that blockbusters just don't have time for.

Gotham Knight is a little light on the special features, only offering commentaries, and there's also a little pre-promoting of DC's Wonder Woman DVD. If the writing for that title is as clear and crisp as it is here, maybe we don't need a big screen Wonder Woman, after all.

Posted on Tuesday, July 8, 2008 at 01:53AM by

Colin Boyd in DVD, Comic Book Movies, Batman, Dark Knight, Animation |

1 Comment

Reader Comments (1)

Ooh, thanks for the review-- mine is arriving today!

Tuesday, July 8, 2008 |

Jen

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